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So as many of you know I am a big proponent of Scythes. I have made those thoughts pretty clear on multiple threads but there hasn't (according to my occasionally faulty mind) actually been a thread dedicated to using, and how to get the most out of playing multiple Scythes. What I am looking to do here is to provide a small tactica based on my personal experiences and hopefully get some input into other and perhaps even more efficient methods on how they may be used effectively.

First off lets take a look at the Pros and Cons:

PROS
Supersonic - the ability to be pretty much anywhere on the field any time you want allows you to effectively disengage footsloggers any time you want as well as opening up some great tactical options. Examples include Deepstriking and late game contests.

Tesla Destructor - A big reason to spam these fellas. Possibly the best gun in the codex and certainly an effective one. Due to the Tesla rule it can be used to stunlock vehicles pretty well or just wrack up a ton of hits. Bringing multiples of this particualr weapon seems like a no-brainer. Arcing is a bonus. While unreliable the way I see it is that you shouldn't expect it to do anything, but equally your opponent can't expect it to do nothing. A psychological trick that has physical ramifications.

CONS
All round AV 11 - If your opponent is bringing missiles, lances, autocannons or lascannons en masse it really isn't that hard to knock down AV11. Cover saves help but realistically a dedicated round of shooting is going to bring down the fliers fast. Later on I'm going to be looking at my personal experiences of mitigating the damage and I hope others can help bring their insights too.

That's pretty much the only obvious one. Some of the other cons are situational (embarked units going back into reserve, not open topped) and in some cases can even be pros. I avoid them here since they are unreliable and you can't really plan a strategy around or avoid them. However I will be going into a bit of detail later on how they can be utilized in the right situations.

So onto some personal experiences. Firstly while I have used Scythes pretty extensively my primary opponent has been DE. I can say now with some confidence that it's a pretty brutal match-up. Very little to assault means no Pain Token generation and mostly S7 attacks mean even once they get FnP it gives little benefit. It would also be prudent to point out that this tends to work VS mechanized and WWP DE. While Mechanized DE tends to give a tougher match (high mobility and night vision tend to mitigate night fight quite heavily) there are also some inherent benefits when using Scythes. DE like to alpha strike and to do so they require being close together. Each unit must support another to give local fire superiority. Tesla punishes them for this, as does the Doom Scythes Death Ray. Taking your opponent out of his/her comfort zone is a big psychological factor that puts the game in your favour.

When I first started using Scythes myself my 1850 list looked like:

Overlord w/ Warscythe, MSS and CC Barge
Overlord w/ Warscythe, MSS and CC Barge

2 Pulse teks (1 from each Overlord)

6x 5x Warriors and Scythes

2x Doom Scythes

This was simply to get a feel for using them completely spammed to the max. While it worked great in certain match-ups after some discussion with my DE opponent (Cmac here on Dakka) I realized it was going to struggle VS Blood Angels and Grey Knights. As a temporary solution when the next Tournament came around I took out 3 units of Troops and added 2 units of Deathmarks in Scythes with attached Veilteks. They worked to a degree but I still had issues. My new solution (and one that has proven brutally effective) has been to replace these with Wraiths. So now my current incarnation looks like:

Overlord w/ Warscythe, MSS and CC Barge
Overlord w/ Warscythe and CC Barge

2 Pulse teks (1 from each Overlord)

3x 5x Warriors and Scythes

6x Wraiths. 3x Whip Coils, 1x Particle Caster, 1x Transdimensional Beamer
6x Wraiths. 3x Whip Coils, 1x Particle Caster, 1x Transdimensional Beamer

2x Doom Scythes

Despite the fact I now have boots on the ground I still maintain a lot of speed and mobility, as well as putting out a lot of threats. Something that didn't really dawn on me until my tournament game against Grey Knights was how quickly the Scythes went down to multiple S8 shots. I really needed something that was capable of drawing that away from them, be resilient enough to take the punishment and maintain a high level of mobility. Wraiths seem too good to be true but fit the bill in every sense.

SYNERGY BETWEEN UNITS
The aim of the thread is to talk about Scythes, not Wraiths, but I do feel it is important to stress they complement each other very well and I would like to look at the potential combinations that work well. In a similar vein to Tyranids the Necrons rely on having a certain synergy between units to make the most out of them. For me personally I found that Doom Scythes worked well when combined with CC Barges. Both are fast and both are a huge threat. It's also hard to deal with all 4/5 that you bring to the table in just 1 or 2 turns (especially with Night Fight in play). Night Scythes when added to the above not only give you the same mobility, but also potentially cover saves for your Doom Scythes. Your Doom Scythe can go 12", Night Scythe goes 24" in front thus unlocking a cover save while still allowing you to fire the Death Ray. If there is something of value in those Night Scythes too your opponent will be very hard pressed to deal with all the threats you are pushing forward.

THE INTANGIBLE BENEFITS...OR ARE THEY???
As I mentioned earlier there are some factors that can be considered pros or cons depending on the situation. Being forced into reserve from a wrecked Scythe is one of them. As a positive it denies your opponent an assault into your squishy Troops and gives them the opportunity to relocate to a safer part of the battlefield, but equally if it happens at the bottom of Turn 5 or beyond you lose them completely. A lot of players (myself included) like to use the Scythes separately from their parent unit so things like this can't happen.

Something else I stumbled across in the tournament game VS Grey Knights was that Scythes can be immobilized...Nothing new there but it left me with a potentially game changing unit (really needed them to contest an objective) stuck in the middle of nowhere and with nothing to do. They couldn't disembark for fear of being gunned down and were too far away from anything to contribute anyway. Be sure to have a plan in mind and think ahead. This situation can cost games.

Has anyone else thought about what else to do with Scythes? Perhaps putting Lychguard into them and just burning right up into your opponents face? With the added threat of Doom Scythes and CC Barges perhaps they will make it through? Zahndrekh giving a Doom Scythe Stealth that's gone flat out? Is it worth looking at an Orikan/WW contingent in larger games to really make the most out of your mobility and hurt your opponents (with this variation I foresee some games being won during deployment)? I think there are potentially a lot of options that still haven't been fully explored for whatever reason. I may try some of them myself once I get a better feel for my list VS certain opponents. This tactica really just contains the basics and I'm hoping others will bring their ideas and thoughts to the discussion.

I've played around with Lychguard a bit, trying to get them to work in various ways.
I've found that a Scythe helps them out a lot. If you drop them right in front of the opponent, he is forced to deal with them. Small arms fire bounces off of T5 3+, and if they open up with anything bigger chances are it's going to be reflected back into their face.
But I've found they don't work nearly as well without a Scythe, and you need like 7 of them and a Res Orb/MSS (either a Lord or an Overlord) for them to really work.

If an army has both doom and night scythes I think a foot element with Imotekh would really help out. If necrons go 2nd they can do a refused flank deployment, night fighting will give the av11 scythes some degree of protection, and stealing the initiative on a 4+ is huge for a glass cannon army.

This is a very nice synopsis of your experience and analysis of the necron sycthes. I personally am a fan but have yet to try them out enough to go through all of your points specifically. But superficially I would agree your final list is the most effective, it is alot like my current list except i dropped the 2 dooms for 3 annhibargers and upgraded troops to morts. I hope you continue this tactica and polish it off more with others input as I believe scythes will become very powerful in the right list with the right general.

And now I want to start a scythe spam army as well, time to start writing lists.

Nice write-up sor far though mate

I'd think about the fact that, and I may have read this wrong, that you have a grand total of 15 troops in three transports. In an objectives game, wouldn't them getting shot off the board be an issue?
Also, disembarking them near an enemy formation is less effective with a small unit in kill point games.
I guess im proposing slightly larger troop squads, maybe immortals instead or something.

Love this thread, mirroring and expanding on a lot of my experience! I wish i could think of something to add, but I'm sure some finer points will come to me when I have less work on my hands.

iGuy91 wrote:I'd think about the fact that, and I may have read this wrong, that you have a grand total of 15 troops in three transports. In an objectives game, wouldn't them getting shot off the board be an issue?
Also, disembarking them near an enemy formation is less effective with a small unit in kill point games.
I guess im proposing slightly larger troop squads, maybe immortals instead or something.

I have this issue with the list too, though I'll correct you and say there are 17 troop bases. Those crypteks count as squad ups. Warrior based scythe spam also suffers from the problem of having too much that is vulnerable to vs light armor weapons. Your warriors fall down pretty quickly to psybacks, autocannons, tau missles and missile blasts of all kinds while having a host of other weaknesses. They are decent guys for what you get them for, but they are not something to be relied upon in small numbers. Especially if what you are saving for with those points here and there are just as vulnerable to some of the most relevant guns in the game right now. Though there is something to be said for target saturation, warrior squads are not much of a threat in themselves.

I stand corrected sir, i forgot about the crpyteks.
But you have a good argument there, and I agree

While the Troops are vulnerable and weak I have so far found that they are much more survivable than they look.
3 Factors help:

Night Fight - For the first 2 enemy turns this will be in play. Do you want to really try and see all the way to the table edge or focus on the closer units.

Reserving - Obviously you need 2 pulses on but the third unit can be held back. Not being able to shoot at them at all is the best way of keeping them alive.

Target Priority - There really are too many other threats to ignore. 3 Night Scythes, 12 Wraiths, 2 Doom Scythes and 2 CC Barges will quickly overwhelm a mechanized or a foot list if they focus on the Troops.

Again this has just been my own experience, but I play against seasoned veterans and none of them have had the opportunity to really get to my Troops until late game by which point their shooting has already been depleted considerably.

Lukus83 wrote:While the Troops are vulnerable and weak I have so far found that they are much more survivable than they look.
3 Factors help:

Night Fight - For the first 2 enemy turns this will be in play. Do you want to really try and see all the way to the table edge or focus on the closer units.

Reserving - Obviously you need 2 pulses on but the third unit can be held back. Not being able to shoot at them at all is the best way of keeping them alive.

Target Priority - There really are too many other threats to ignore. 3 Night Scythes, 12 Wraiths, 2 Doom Scythes and 2 CC Barges will quickly overwhelm a mechanized or a foot list if they focus on the Troops.

Again this has just been my own experience, but I play against seasoned veterans and none of them have had the opportunity to really get to my Troops until late game by which point their shooting has already been depleted considerably.

Ya, it is the late game and picking away that I tend to be most worried about. I've had some bad experiences, but I'll admit, I'm probably doing something wrong. I could be planning for that stage of the game a little better I suppose if I want to utilize warriors. It's a shame those little things are hard to flesh out in a tactica, I get the feeling there is a lot of finesse to winning some games with this style.

The best part of this this IMO was without the wraiths. It pretty much made any CC element in your army redundant.

- troops don't fall out of transports
- needing 6's to hit all the time
- explosions are bad for DE if you are close without pain tokens to start (army dependent here)

To counter this, and also GK's, significantly more AT was added. This may have changed the Alpha results but is unplayed. With the wraiths around, it gives a CC unit SOMETHING to do, albeit a tough job. And wraiths are a reasonable threat to have to deal with.

Most of this depends on the proxy you are using for the Scythes. I found the Tesla Destructors to be really effective, but ran into a major problem that you didn't mention.

On a tall flying base with a big wingspan (comparable to a Valkyrie), it's virtually impossible to get a cover save for any of the Scythes, let alone get them out of LOS. Against stuff like Missile Launchers, Autocannons, and Dark Lances, they go down freakishly fast - and those weapons can fire from pretty much anywhere on the table.

You can do massive offensive damage with the flyers, but you're going to take heavy casualties from anything stronger than a bolter. And the Night/Doom Scythes aren't cheap... 100-175 points hurts to lose in one big chunk.

It does look pretty good, but one question (albeit, not about Scythes, sorry):
Why the Transdimensional Beamers on the Wraiths?
Wouldn't that slow them down?
Yes, I realize they're mostly there as a distraction, and the Beamers would keep them alive a bit longer thanks to would allocation, but it just seems odd to neuter their effectiveness.
(unless this has worked well for you)

Also, I would think the most obvious reason we're not seeing more Scythe spam is lack of the actual model... no doubt next month will see a change to that.


But by way of wondering, what point value is your second list? Still 1850? If you'd need to bump it up in points for higher value games, what would you change?

I really enjoyed reading this. I too have Used a Scythe Spam army, though at 2k, to great effectiveness. And that was against a competitive GK army.

My list: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/437596.page

Now, my main problem with your list tends to really be the Doom Scythes. Now, I'm a veteran DE player and this thing screams Void Raven Bomber. It's too expensive for what it does, is too fragile to make it worth spending pts on, and isn't that versatile. Sure these things have the death ray...but really, what does it do that you can't buy elsewhere? The CCCBs should be got go to for anti AV 14 (the only thing those death rays really mean much to our army) and the rest of your army should be more focused on popping transports and killing troops. I personally am fond of adding lances to my 5 man warrior units and walking them around why my Tesla and barges murder up close. Sure they can try and kill them, but that generally leaves 10 str 8 ap 2 shots a turn walking around.

Though, in reading this, I did like the suggestion on using Imotekh (swear I misspell this guy's name every time i write it) for the night fighting instead of Crypteks with the added benefit of helping to alpha strike (which is something this list craves also as much as DE).

Annnnd, who doesn't love more str 8. My only problem would be losing a CCCB for him.

Will try to answer what I can from the iPhone. Apologies in advance for spelling.

The transdimensional Beamer is there purely for wound allocation. Wraiths will draw s8 fire so I want them allocated as much as possible. Going back to the point about Scythes going down to multiple shot S8 fire I believe I mentioned it. In fact that was the entire reason for including the Wraiths.

I can see immotekh working with this list. It just so happens that I like CC Barges too much to consider losing 1. That's just me though. Something worth playtesting.

I tend to use my CC Barges on whatever is the biggest threat. Not every army has access to AV14 and even those that do may not bring a list that utilises them. However sweeping a Landraider is not a guaranteed kill and if they have multiples sweep attacks will struggle. The death ray can be used as insurance in this case. I would rather it was almost insta-popping AV11 but that isn't always going to happen.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oh and the Doom Scythes are another threat. 1 that has to be dealt with fast. That, I guess, is the theme of the list that I'm working on. Too many threats, too little time. While A. Barges are cheap and come with a great weapon they don't fit the theme. Slow with a medium ranged weapon. It gives your opponent an easier time deciding what to shoot at since it's all arriving at different times.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Another benefit has just come to me (actually I knew about this before, but it's one of those things that I forgot to add).

Tesla, Death Ray and Night fight really synergize well. Put the 3 together and what do you have? An army that has weapons which encourage spreading out, yet if they do they may very well end up out of range to retaliate. Of course you need mobility to achieve this since you only get 2 Pulses...every turn counts. I can't help but think now how Immotekh would buff this build with his increased chance to steal and the fact his night fight may last longer and does damage while you are simply positioning for the alpha.

Alright, good sir, I put to you this challenge:
Can you build a 2000 point army (which fits your current theme) that utilizes Imotekh?

Too many targets too little time is a good way to encapsulate my experience of the style when it is working.
Especially given the turns denied because of nightfighting. It's like forcing them to reserve heavy weapons randomly in some cases. It also applies to the ability to utilize mobility and manipulate the concentration of your units vs theirs to your advantage.
Your positioning is really key, but as I'm getting better with scythes I'm understanding it makes theirs a really key issue if done right.

I'd be happy if you lot would keep generating discussion! I feel like something is actually getting through over here!

Hey guys, I am actually thinking of making this list...What do you think would be an adequate conversion for the night scythe. My list is looking like:
2 OVs w WS + CCB
2 pulseteks

4 5 man immortals w 4 night scythes

5 wraiths+ allocation
5 wraiths + allocation

doom scythe
2 A Barges

Gives me 2 CCBs, 4 Night scythes, 1 doom scythe mainly as a distraction/target and 2 abs for simple shot saturation. If I wanted I could drop the doom scythe for another AB and a small squad of scarabs, or transmog crypteks.

mainly, what do you guys think I should do to make a night scythe, I was thinking of getting a venom/ravager and converting it necron style.

Any conversion or possible products that would work?

Clauss wrote:What do you think would be an adequate conversion for the night scythe.
what do you guys think I should do to make a night scythe, I was thinking of getting a venom/ravager and converting it necron style.

Any conversion or possible products that would work?

... I'll just leave this here,
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/409532.page

My advice for a scythe spam list... take a monolith... You can only take 2 Doom Scythes if you do, but it fixes the problem of your warrior units having to walk on from reserve if their night scythe gets popped, and also gives you a pretty tough nut for your opponent to crack and will catch a few bullets for your Scythes.

Creating a 2k Scythe list which incorporates Immotekh seems like fun. Taking out a CC Barge Overlord and a Pulse tek seems a simple solution but you also have to consider which unit to join. I feel there will be a balancing act in this situation as you don't want to put to many points into a full contingent that supports Immotekh (Ghost Ark and 20 Warriors), but equally you have to have him supported enough that he isn't easy prey.

Immotekh
Overlord w/ Warscythe and CC Barge

Pulse Tek
Pulse Tek

10x Warriors w/ Night Scythe
5x Warriors w/ Night Scythe
5x Warriors w/ Night Scythe

6x Wraiths. 3x Whip Coils, 1x Transdimensional Beamer, 1x Particle Caster
6x Wraiths. 3x Whip Coils, 1x Transdimensional Beamer, 1x Particle Caster

Doom Scythe
Doom Scythe

This should give 55 points to play with. I would probably go with a Chronotek and give the CC Barge lord MSS. This way you get Immotekh,10 Warriors, a Chronotek and a lancetek all in 1 unit.

Looks good on paper, has anyone tried anything similar? Next time I get a game in I might give this a try.

with immotek and the loss of a barge I would attempt to include Chrono orb and either another doomscythe/wraith block or some mobile short range serious shooting options so you can corner elements of a force and eliminate them bit by bit.

I think you will need more of those multipurpose hard threat sort of units with the loss of the barge.

EDIT, I've been meaning to ask you how the deathmarks played, and how they work vs the transports.

Hmm, so using your concept...
*scribble, scribble*
... and I make those changes here...
*scribble, scribble*
...
okay, that looks about right.


HQ [570]
Immotekh = 225 (A)
Overlord (Warscythe, MS Scarabs) = 115
+ Command Barge = 80
Harbinger of Destruction (Solar Pulse) = 55 (A)
Harbinger of Destruction (Solar Pulse) = 55 (B)
Harbinger of Eternity (Chronometron) = 40 (A)

TROOPS [566]
8 Immortals = 136
+ Night Scythe = 100 (A)
5 Warriors = 65
+ Night Scythe = 100 (B)
5 Warriors = 65
+ Night Scythe = 100

FAST [520]
6 Wraiths (3x Whip Coils, 1x Transdimensional Beamer, 1x Particle Caster) = 260
6 Wraiths (3x Whip Coils, 1x Transdimensional Beamer, 1x Particle Caster) = 260

HEAVY [350]
Doom Scythe = 175
Doom Scythe = 175


Automatically Appended Next Post:
...

DAMN IT, SIX POINTS OVER.
* begrudgingly considers dropping Immortals down to 7*
(frankly, I really am beginning to believe that Immotekh doesn't belong in armies less than 2500 points)

You could just take off the MSS. They aren't mandatory. I usually only put them on if I have 15 points spare.

Lukus83 wrote:6x Wraiths. 3x Whip Coils, 1x Transdimensional Beamer, 1x Particle Caster

The transdimensional Beamer is just too expensive an upgrade for wound allocation purposes. I'd drop it and just go like this:

6x Wraiths - 3x Whips, 1x Caster

This has worked well enough for me.

schadenfreude wrote:If an army has both doom and night scythes I think a foot element with Imotekh would really help out. If necrons go 2nd they can do a refused flank deployment, night fighting will give the av11 scythes some degree of protection, and stealing the initiative on a 4+ is huge for a glass cannon army.

I find it just too hard to justify dropping a command barge scythe-lord for Immotekh and his unreliable powers. Don't forget that if you get Immo, you almost always have to spend the points for a chrono-tek as well.

And to take away a command barge is to reduce your threat saturation and to make target priority easier for your opponent.

Emperor awfulness wrote:Most of this depends on the proxy you are using for the Scythes. I found the Tesla Destructors to be really effective, but ran into a major problem that you didn't mention.

On a tall flying base with a big wingspan (comparable to a Valkyrie), it's virtually impossible to get a cover save for any of the Scythes, let alone get them out of LOS. Against stuff like Missile Launchers, Autocannons, and Dark Lances, they go down freakishly fast - and those weapons can fire from pretty much anywhere on the table.

You can do massive offensive damage with the flyers, but you're going to take heavy casualties from anything stronger than a bolter. And the Night/Doom Scythes aren't cheap... 100-175 points hurts to lose in one big chunk.

Or so you would think. However, a few things help to mitigate this problem.

First is night-fight.

Second are the threat priorities in the army. With 2 CCB surflords, 2 units of wraiths and 2 doom scythes, your opponent will be forced to ignore the night scythes initially because those other units are just a much, much bigger threat. And other than the doom scythes (who should always be moving flat-out for the cover if they are not within range to use their death ray), CCB's and wraiths are quite resilient to enemy shooting.

I have started to have a long hard think about a few things (as well as arranging a small campaign for some of the other expat players) but here's some more thoughts on issues that have been brought up.

Adding Immo sounds like a good idea. More turns of night fight, potentially more damage due to his lightning strikes, seizing on 4+ to give you a better chance of getting that all important alpha and he can do a bit of damage himself with a flamer and S6 AP1 line. He's also fairly resilient as IC's go with a decent invulnerable. But...what happens if you come up against an anti-meta army. 2 Landraiders? 3 Monoliths? 1 CC Barge and 2 Doom Scythes are going to struggle. Wraiths can deal with them, but they are most definitely put to better use elsewhere. If you add Immo I think Scarabs become a fundamental part of the plan, even if that plan is just to reduce an AV14 vehicle down to AV12/11 so your other tools can deal with them.

Regarding the Wraiths Transdimensional Beamer I don't know how much more survivability it brings. I have seen online people running them the way you do (jy2), but adding an extra wound group is always a good thing and I have the points spare. If I was to put those points somewhere else it would be MSS and/or 2+ saves for the Overlords. In my mind both seem like fine ideas.

And going back to Lucre's post about the Deathmarks...When I played them I put them in Scythes. The first game they were bloody fantastic. Got the Drop on some DC that were going to munch some of my Troops and obliterated them. 2nd game was much the same, only this time it was an assault squad with Dante. Got a load of unsaved wounds on that my Tesla would have otherwise struggled with. I think they have their place but they fill such a niche role (Deathstar killer), if you already have some redundancy in that area they become slightly redundant. When you are running pure Tesla the AP1 flamer template helps a lot. However if you are bringing a well rounded list that has the tools to take on 2+ saves or 3+ then FnP you don't really need them. I would rank them as a semi competitive choice, which can become competitive in the right kind of list.

Awesome thread, well done.

Saptilladerky wrote:

Now, my main problem with your list tends to really be the Doom Scythes. Now, I'm a veteran DE player and this thing screams Void Raven Bomber..

Played with both supersonic craft, and the Doom Scythe basically craps all over the Void Raven Bomber. It's patently unfair and DE got shafted.

Nothing else in the codex brings to the table anything close to the Death Ray. The damage a single Doom Scythe can inflict on the average MSU Mech army is horrific.

Anyhoo, here's my 2000 pter formulation with Imotekh.

Imotekh.
Overlord - Scythe, Res Orb.

9 Immortals, Gauss. - Night Scythe.

5 Immortals, Tesla. - Night Scythe.
- 2 Destroteks, 1 Pulse

5 Immortals, Tesla. - Night Scythe.
- 2 Destroteks.

5 Immortals, Tesla. - Night Scythe.
- 2 Destroteks.

5 Immortals, Tesla. - Night Scythe.
- 2 Destroteks.

- Doom Scythe.
- Doom Scythe.

Okay, so a few points. Imotekh is really there for the seize on a 4+. When playing Scythes, first turn good. The Nightfight is a bonus. The Lightning is salt in the wound.

Tesla Carbines are basically Stormbolters by another name. Cheap Stormbolters also good.. I like having 20 Stormbolters in my army to grind down everything left at the endgame. You have to take the troops to unlock the Scythes, and 340 points that are useful beats 260 points of deadweight when building a list.

Lances complement the Scythes, TD's are good guns but they do have problem that Str8 AP2 solves. Ravagers. Oblits. etc.

And well if I've got a Phaeron I might as well use him for relentless Gauss Blasters.

Easy list to tweak too, I don't like CCB's but it's fairly easy to give this Overlord one. Second Pulse/Chronometron I think is overkill, but again, not hard to take.

Av14 isn't a huge issue. Players taking two Land Raiders tend to stick two heavy units in them, and thus short out on ranged AT support. Big problem vs this army. 3 Monoliths? Huge huge gamble to take in the current Mech Melta Meta.

AV13 spam is maybe more of a pitfall....


Ohhh and about Lychguard. Best way I've used them is the Zandrekh slingshot.

Basically involves Zandrekh and the LG supersonic in a Stealth Nightscythe up the guts, with Obyron veiling Immortals on top of the Scythe to open a hole first turn. At the same time you're attacking with 2 Doom Scythes, Monolith, and troop Scythes.

Problem is the Slingshot squeezes you for points.

Zandrekh
Obyron

Lychguard, Scythe

10 Immortals, Gauss Blasters.

5 Tesla Immortals, Scythe
5 Tesla Immortals, Scythe.

Doom Scythe
Doom Scythe
Monolith

= 1735, add your flavour.

Halfpast_Yellow wrote:here's my 2000 pter formulation with Imotekh.

Imotekh.
Overlord - Scythe, Res Orb.

9 Immortals, Gauss. - Night Scythe.

5 Immortals, Tesla. - Night Scythe.
- 2 Destroteks, 1 Pulse

5 Immortals, Tesla. - Night Scythe.
- 2 Destroteks.

5 Immortals, Tesla. - Night Scythe.
- 2 Destroteks.

5 Immortals, Tesla. - Night Scythe.
- 2 Destroteks.

- Doom Scythe.
- Doom Scythe.

...
QUICK!
Somebody throw together this list and play a game with it to see if it's as workable as it looks!
(better yet, Frontline Gaming and jy2 should do a bat.rep video with it, to see whether Complete Scythe Spam is a viable contender)

Imotekh.
Overlord - Scythe, Res Orb.

9 Immortals, Gauss. - Night Scythe.

5 Immortals, Tesla. - Night Scythe.
- 2 Destroteks, 1 Pulse

5 Immortals, Tesla. - Night Scythe.
- 2 Destroteks.

5 Immortals, Tesla. - Night Scythe.
- 2 Destroteks.

5 Immortals, Tesla. - Night Scythe.
- 2 Destroteks.

- Doom Scythe.
- Doom Scythe.

Imo only harms this list. 2 CCB Overlords and 2 pulses are far better for a shooting list.

I actually played against a scythe-spam list run by Janthkin, a very good player.


Sorry, but no report on this one due to the number of proxies by my opponent. But I will give a brief synopsis here.


His list (at 1850):

Nemesor Zandrehk (he decided to play-test Zandrehk instead of Immotehk)
Royal Court - 3x Lance-teks, 1x Pulse, 1x Lord w/Mindshackles and Warscythe

10x Immortals - Gauss, Night Scythe (Zandrehk and Lord here)
5x Warriors- Night Scythe
5x Warriors- Night Scythe
5x Warriors- Night Scythe

10x Scarabs

Doom Scythe
Doom Scythe
Monolith


My 1850 shooting nids:

Swarmlord
1x Tyrant Guard - 1x Lash whips

3x Hive Guards
3x Hive Guards
3x Hive Guards

Tervigon - Adrenal Glands, Catalyst, Cluster Spines, Toxin Sacs
13x Termagants
Tervigon - Adrenal Glands, Catalyst, Cluster Spines, Toxin Sacs
13x Termagants

3x Biovore
3x Biovore
Tyrannofex - Cluster Spines, Desiccator Larvae, Rupture Cannon


We played Spearhead, Annihilation. I went first. Janthkin reserves his entire army.

Turn 1 - I spread out and spawn termagants. 1 tervigon runs out. I did this to force him to deepstrike his doom scythes further out.

Turn 2 - Just waiting for me.

I believe 2 night scythes, the monolith and both doom scythe comes in. Mono and doom scythe lands on target. Focus-fire wipes out 1 unit of hive guards.

Turn 3 - I destroy 1 doom scythe and weapon-destroy the other. I might have knocked out 1 night scythe.

The rest of his army (except scarabs) comes in. He continues to focus on my hive guards and knock another unit down to just 1 model. He also does some minor damage to my other units, including killing off Swarmy's tyrant guard.

Turn 4 - This turn, my hive guards shake/stun 1 scythes and immobilize another. I make a huge mistake here and charge Swarmy into his HQ unit, forgetting about mindshackles. Luckily, Swarmy survives....

....but not for long. On his turn, Swarmy commits harakiri. Tesla-destructors continue to do some damage, including wiping out the single hive guard. Scarabs come in and multi-assault some gants and the tervigon, wiping out the gants and stripping my tervigon of its armor. Luckily, I had FNP on him. I spawn a unit of termagants and run out. My termagants, however, assault and break a unit of warriors, who would later run off the board.

Turn 5 - Hive guards take down a night scythe only. My biovores aren't doing too well. They either scatter all over the place, or my opponent makes his saves/RP tests. Another unit of termagants charge the scarabs to help out my tervigon.

He wipes out 1 terivgon and kills some biovores, causing them to fall back. In assault, I am killing his scarabs more quickly than he is killing my termagants.

Turn 6 - Tervigon casts Dominion but fleeing biovores are just slightly out of range. T-fex shoots and then assaults his HQ unit but fails my MSS test. Hive guards fail to kill another scythe. Tervigon and termagants wipe out those scarabs.

He doesn't do much and the game ends.


Janthkin's necrons beat my nids 8-7 after a hard-fought battle. If only my 3 hive guards managed to wreck his night scythe on Turn 6 (I got 3 pens but rolled 1's and 2's on the damage charts), it would've been a draw. I felt I had a superior list and more experience than my opponent, but I've gotta give him props for beating me with his very first game with the necrons.